I was reading an article the other day that there are some people who don’t actually have an inner voice. They don’t have someone who talks to them all the time, the monkey brain, monkey voice, if you will, a voice that’s always doubting or pushing or analyzing, a voice that maybe is filled with joy at times or fear or whatever it is. So this chat is only to the people that hear the inner voice, so to speak. So the question becomes, how can I manage my inner voice? Because unless it’s managed, it seems to run amok, doesn’t it?
And this is a well known fact by psychologists. They often talk about this. How can we actually talk to our self relative to positive thoughts, these positive ideas? I’ve just read a book, finished a book, Psycho Cybernetics, and it has a lot to do with building your personal self image, your personal brand. Very interesting book.
I highly recommend it. So how do you control the inner voice? Well, I think the very first thing is that one has to realize that the inner voice can be controlled, can be managed. How? First of all, you begin with saying to yourself that I’m going to have a moment of silence, absolute silence, and I’m gonna focus only on my breathing.
And by focusing only on my breathing, and you’ll have thoughts that come to you, push them away. Just push them away and focus only on your breathing. And with some practice, you will come to realize that you are in control of your inner voice. And then Doctor Csikszentmihalyi, he suggests that we try to discover a state of flow, fall into something that we really truly enjoy and get into it, whatever it is. For me, I find that when I’m teaching, I forget everything else, absolutely everything else, all the problems that everyone seems to have including me, and I just focus on the matter at hand.
So one is to actually focus on your breathing. Two, get into the flow. And then, I think a wonderful experiment is to go for a walk in nature. And when you’re walking in nature, there will be many images around you. You’ll have the trees and the bugs and the bees and the crunch of the gravel under your boots, etcetera.
And the inner voice will, of course, the monkey brain will be there trying to jump in and just push it away. Push it away and focus once again on nature. And what will come to you is an amazing state of calm. At the moment, I’m planning to walk the El Camino this summer. And so with my walking partner David, we walk around 60 kilometers a week of all things.
And what you find is that by walking continuously in the mountains, a state of peace, serenity if you will, truly comes to you. And you begin to realize that you can manage all of these things around you. And then, of course, the notebook, perhaps the greatest friend of all. Just write down all of those thoughts because not all the thoughts that come to you are bad thoughts, for sure. A lot of them are very imaginative and very clever.
So we also wanna gain control of those as well. And I think if you do these things, you will realize that you can be in control of your inner thoughts. Now, of course, all of us have been into this negative loop. Some people call them regrets, but I don’t like the term really because a regret is just something that’s occurred in the past and you bring it to the present and you energize it and you loop it. You loop it again and again and again.
And if it stays with you long enough, it begins to cloud the reality that you’re occupying. And this is where you fall into victimization, the poor me individual. You know, the beggar on the street. Poor me. One time, I was walking along with my friend Keith, beautiful sunny day in Vancouver, and a young man stopped me, asked me for money.
And I said, sir, I’m sorry. I don’t like to give money to healthy people. So I said, sir, I’m sorry. I have no money. And he said, sir, sir, I’m not a sir.
I’m a beggar. And I realized that whatever was going on externally, bad teeth, dirty clothes, smelly, everything else was nothing in comparison to the mess that was going on inside, but that’s of his own doing. You are responsible. You are the quality of your thoughts. This is so very true.
And so you can train your thoughts to be positive thoughts. But, of course, the monkey brain, the evil that exists in the world with images on an ongoing basis, the yellow journalism, whatever it is, it’s always there right in front of you if you want. Right? All you have to do is open your phone with the hundred thousand bits of information that you receive every single day, for god’s sakes. Most of it nonsense.
Most of it evil. Not at all representing the world that each of us actually occupies. So try it out, and you can gain control of your inner thoughts. Requires practice, but it’s possible. Start with your breathing.
And you know what they say. You know what they say. Critical thinking is everything, especially if you’re going to control your inner thoughts. And critical thinking is great. Absolutely great. You take care. God bless. Bye bye.